The Internet and Satisfying Psychological Needs
Past research on the effects of Internet-communication applications suggests that social media platforms satisfy two primary psychological needs: the need to belong to a group and the need for self-presentation. For users with high levels of introversion, shyness, and social anxiety, social networking sites (SNS) help them connect to other human beings and satisfy these primal needs without the pressures of an in-person meeting.
"Memory" By Nancy Jean Lopez
However, this behavior can become compulsive and detrimental to one's psychological and physical well-being when users spend copious amounts of time online playing games, shopping, or refreshing social media feeds. One study out of the University of Duisburg-Essen's psychology department identifies the user's expectations—what they will gain from their online experience—as a possible contributor to IA. As the researchers hypothesized, study participants who were low in social competence and high in loneliness were more likely to use online social platforms as a means to satisfy primal social needs. As online usage increases, "specific cognitions are then consolidated by reinforcement processes in the context of using certain applications and by experiencing gratification, and could then enhance the risk of developing and maintaining a specific Internet-use disorder" (Wegmann 40). The user's need for social interaction is the most influential motive for using Internet-communication applications. However, as the study shows, attempting to compensate social deficits with less satisfying online interactions can contribute to IA as the user devotes ever-increasing amounts of time and energy to the pursuit of social and psychological needs.